Managing A Salon And Its Most Difficult Employees

Perhaps you thought that by managing a salon of your own, you wouldn’t have to deal with difficult employees. And yet they popped right back into your workplace. The question is, how do you deal with personality clashes? With a staff member who doesn’t show up? Employee troubles are inevitable- salons aren’t immune. While sometimes the problems are obvious and easy to manage, other times they can be quite tricky to handle.

Remember, keeping an enjoyable and friendly work environment is not only good for you and your staff, but also for every single one of your clients. It’s okay to be patient but only to a certain extent. As a manager, it is your responsibility to take effective action to make sure things go back to normal.

Let’s have a look at 4 of the most typical “difficult salon employees” and see what you can do to restore your healthy work environment and manage “the unmanageable”!

4 Common Employee Problems When Managing A Salon

The ‘Know-it-all’

Why it’s a problem: When managing a salon, this type of behavior comes up quite often. An employee thinks he or she knows everything and is the go-to person in the business. Acting like everything has at least once happened to them. A Know-It-All employee kills team spirit and they are most likely not open to new ideas or collaborating. Not the easiest type of person to work with.

Possible management solutions:Keeping a sense of humor can helps when managing a Know-It-All personality (challenges the defensive mechanisms). If the situation is getting out of hand, take the person aside, and offer constructive feedback on their attitude. Don’t “attack” this employee. Rather, be conscious of the fact there is probably an underlying confidence issue hanging that needs to be addressed.

The ‘Ghost’

Why it’s a problem: Unreliable staff members make managing a salon a tough task. Customers are quickly lost, and the rest of the team is hacked off and shuffled around.

Possible management solutions: Unreliable attendance might indicate a broad range of issues. From problems at home to job dissatisfaction, the best way to deal with a ghost employee is to initiate a private chat. Find out where the attitude is stemming from to help you pick your next move. If the issue is outside work, you might need to offer sympathy or find adapted solutions to accommodate both of you. However, if your talk uncovers work dissatisfaction, investigate as to why, but also consider reminding the employee of your unjustified absences policies. To help you find out if someone of your staff is thinking about leaving your team, you might appreciate this article.

The ‘Victim’

Why it’s a problem: “Why does work have to start this early in the morning?”, “So unfair”, “Why don’t I get that?”… You heard these all over before. Typical banter. This type of behavior is toxic, but also selfish and undermines your strong-knit team spirit.

Possible management solutions:People who play the victim are usually trying to prevent feelings to arise using a defense mechanism. Any attempt to show them the “truth” won’t go down well. Don’t ignore the signs of someone who starts playing the victims (starts overreacting to small daily obstacles, start playing the blaming game, whining gets more frequent). Do nothing to empower this attitude and most importantly, do not tolerate this behavior. Instead, go for a coffee with your employee, and question what’s wrong. While you can’t control everything, you can certainly control how you handle things.

The ‘Everyone’s best friend’

Why it’s a problem: Extremely friendly in face-to-face encounters, the “Everyone’s best friend” tends to be somewhat untrustworthy, as you never know what he thinks about people or even, about your salon. This can cause a toxic dynamic within your whole team.

Possible management solutions:Don’t hesitate to confront the staff member. Dig into the problem and pay extra special attention to your team’s day-to-day dynamic. Organise meetings if needed. Meetings are sometimes considered as an uncommon practice in salons, but sincerely, to take the time to sit down and review the week with your team is an increase in communication, which can only be positive in the long run. These meetings shouldn’t be about “bashing people,” but simply a moment to review what went well, what needs to be improved and establishing targets as a team.

As a general rule, managing a salon and its most difficult employees requires handling situations using direct and clear communication. With most employees, a one-on-one chat will do the job. And the first chat should center around you listening to what might be on your staff member’s mind. It is amazing what happens when you simply give someone a few minutes of undivided attention. The most important thing to keep in mind is to take action as soon as you’re made aware of the problem. Letting it go on will only make things worse and rub off on your entire team.

Oh, and by the way! The 2017 Salon Owners Summit theme is “Team Building: Creating A Culture of Initiative in Your Salon”; an excellent opportunity to get inspired on ways to retain your staff while managing a salon!(PLEASE CLICK HERE to request a callback!)

Thanks for reading!

#LetsGrow

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